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Last week's reefer trends were pretty similar to van. Volumes dipped slightly, but the urgency in the run-up to Christmas pushed the national average reefer rate up to the highest it's been in six weeks. 

Darker-colored states have higher load-to-truck ratios, meaning that there's less competition for reefer loads in those states.

Reefer volumes and rates have been strong since Thanksgiving. Most of the top lanes had higher rates last week, and there was a mini-surge in prices out of Florida and Texas. Some of these prices may drop this week, as the holiday season is mostly in the rearview.

Rates include fuel surcharges and are based on real transactions between carriers and brokers.

RISING

The top gainers were out of Florida. These rates may still be climbing thanks to winter vegetables, fruit and citrus:

• Miami to Elizabeth, NJ surged ▲67¢ all the way up to $2.25/mile
• A little less dramatic: Lakeland, FL, to Charlotte was up ▲27¢ to $1.55/mile
• The backhaul from Miami to Atlanta also rose ▲25¢ to $1.43/mile

There was some late shipping out of Chicago, too:

• Chicago to Philadelphia rates spiked ▲43¢ to $3.24/mile
• Chicago to Atlanta added ▲34¢ to $2.96/mile

FALLING LANES

There weren’t a lot of big drops on reefer lanes, leading up to Christmas. A few Western regional markets that were hot a few weeks ago were mostly flat last week, including Twin Falls, ID and Denver. There were also a couple of lanes with declining rates, in the Upper Midwest:

• Grand Rapids to Cleveland lost ▼27¢, but is still strong at $2.99/mile
• Green Bay to Des Moines dipped ▼17¢ to $1.99/mile

See what other truckers got paid on the lanes you run by signing up for TruckersEdge Enhanced. You'll see the average prices paid on more than 65,000 lanes, based on real transactions between brokers and carriers. To add rates to your TruckersEdge subscription, call 866.487.8253.